INTRODUCTION
Boats are often identified in the text and the diagrams as Iris, Daffodil, etc, and such names sometimes replace the actual boat names or designations (usually a plain A or B) in the text of cases that are quoted. The official diagrams of cases have been redrawn for stylistic consistency, and perhaps greater clarity: if in the process they are inadvertently materially different from the originals, it is of course the original diagrams that are authoritative.
The rules and appendices will not change before 2021 unless there is an urgent need. Reference is also made to World Sailing Codes, but, as the Introduction to the Racing Rules of Sailing states, these are more likely to change during the currency of the rule cycle.
The primary source of rule interpretation is The World Sailing Case Book, whose interpretations and explanations are authoritative for all racing1
. The World Sailing cases are not themselves rules, but, when the facts from a
protest are essentially similar to the facts of an World Sailing case, the interpretations in that case should be accepted by the protest committee as correct interpretations of the racing rules for that protest2
. The World
Sailing Case Book is available on the World Sailing website. The World Sailing cases are re-edited at the start of the new rules cycle. Beware other books that predate those changes.
Secondary sources are:
• The World Sailing Call Books for Match Racing and Team Racing: these are authoritative only for those parts of the sport3
, but are nevertheless clear guides to many of the rules in action, usually at close quarters.
• The case books of national authorities, whose protest committees are well advised to follow their leaders provided that a national case does not inadvertently conflict with an World Sailing case. Most national authorities do not publish a case book (the leading authorities that do are the RYA, US Sailing and Sail Canada, of which the RYA’s is the most extensive, as reflected in this book). Judges are likely to be most aware of their own national cases, and a judge with that detailed knowledge can often find a case that is of assistance to an international jury of which he or she is a member, whether at home or abroad4
. The case books of other countries are available on the websites of
the national authorities concerned. National cases sometimes develop rule interpretation in areas where no suitable World Sailing case exists5
, and occasionally the published cases of different authorities are incompatible with each
other. When this is detected, it may result in a submission to World Sailing of a case or of a rule change to clarify the matter. The national cases are also re-edited at the start of the new rules cycle. This book uses the latest 2017 texts of the RYA, US Sailing and Sail Canada (SC) cases.
• The World Sailing Racing Rules Question and Answer Panel, whose answers to questions from World Sailing race officials and national authorities are published on the World Sailing website. They are not authoritative, but are ‘the carefully considered opinions of an experienced panel’6 and publishing ‘rapid response calls’ for match and team racing.
. There is a similar process for agreeing
The Racing Rules are mainly addressed to a boat, which means a sailboat and the crew on board. It is a boat that breaks a rule, and it is the boat that is penalised. Only by exception is a boat’s intention directly relevant to a racing rule7
. Likewise, the intentions, acts and omissions of persons performing race committee or technical
committee functions are deemed to be those of the committees. However, intentions, acts and omissions of individual crew members, owners and support persons are relevant to disciplinary rules.
‘Vessel’ means a boat (which may or may not be racing, as in rules 41 or 42.3), as well as a ship (which is unlikely to be racing!).
Reference is also made to the tabulated World Sailing Codes, When a rule in a Code is called up by a racing rule, that Code might change in this rules cycle, but the ‘calling-up’ rule is unlikely to change.
We are told that ‘The notation [‘DP’] in a rule’ means a discretionary penalty, but that notation is not actually used in any racing rule of sailing – the availability of a discretionary penalty is fully spelt out in such rules8 defined, where the notation is likely to be found is most likely a sailing instruction or in the notice of race.
. The ‘rule’, as
The Racing Rules of Sailing and World Sailing Codes are published in English, which will always take precedence over any translation – but the language in which a class rule is originally published will prevail over any translation of it.9
1 WS Regulation 28.3 2 US 99 3 WS Regulation 28.3 4 US 99, RYA 2002/13 5 RYA cases on rule 28, for instance 6 WS Regulations 28.3.6 and 28.3.8. 7 A boat intending to race, for instance, in the preamble to Part 2. See also Rule 2, Fair Sailing 8 See rules 2, 41 and 55 9
Q&A 2017.004
RYA The Racing Rules Explained 17
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